To protest a protracted energy crisis that has resulted in record-breaking power outages in South Africa, hundreds of people have come to the streets of Johannesburg.
On Wednesday, protesters gathered in the city centre of the continent’s most industrialised country’s financial hub to march on the African National Congress (ANC) party’s headquarters.
The Democratic Alliance, which organised the demonstration, is the primary opposition party, and its colour was worn by the majority of attendees.
Some held signs reading, “Enough is enough,” “Power to the people” and “Load shedding is killing jobs.”
Load shedding, also known as scheduled blackouts, has been a problem for South Africa for years since the government-owned electricity company Eskom has been unable to keep up with demand and repair its ageing coal power facilities.
However, during the past 12 months, the outages have increased to unprecedented heights. Several times per day, sometimes for almost 12 hours at a period, lights go off.
Authorities predicted that roughly 5,000 people would march in Johannesburg, which has a population of about 5.5 million, and there was a significant police presence there.
A counterdemonstration with a few hundred ANC supporters also took place at the party’s headquarters.
There were planned protests around the country, notably in Cape Town.
“We have to charge our phones at certain times. We have to cook at certain times,” Marino Hughes, a 22-year-old student, told the Agence France-Presse news agency. “We shouldn’t have to live this way in South Africa.”
The country has lost hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of output as a result of the outages, which have impacted industry and trade.
“I had to close four shops and 20 people lost their jobs, all this because I can’t run my business because of load shedding,” said Lloyd Peltier, 40, a poultry entrepreneur.
This week, a group representing the agriculture sector claimed that due of the blackouts, dairy farms had been unable to keep milk chilled.
“Food is rotten in our fridges. … What is the ANC doing?” asked Mpana Hlasa, 35, who works at a school.
The recent acceptance of a significant electricity tariff rise, which the indebted Eskom, which produces more than 90% of South Africa’s energy, claimed would help its finances, infuriated a lot of people.
“I already pay over 1,000 rand [$58] for electricity each month and I don’t have any,” said Betty Lekgadimane, 44, who is unemployed.
This week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said it was “understandable” that people were “tired” of a crisis spreading “havoc” on the nation but cautioned that it could not be resolved immediately.
The president stated last week at an ANC meeting that the administration was trying to increase output of renewable energy sources and import electricity from outside.
